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| Chris Lane Australian baseball player |
One of the teenagers accused of the murder of Australian baseballer Chris Lane will no longer face a first-degree murder charge and is testifying against two co-defendants.
The Stephens County District Attorney’s Office on Tuesday filed a motion to dismiss the murder charge against James Francis Edwards Jr.
Edwards Jr will instead be charged with the lesser offence of accessory after the fact in the shooting death of 22-year-old Lane.
Edwards testified against 18-year-old Michael Dewayne Jones and 17-year-old Chancey Luna during their preliminary hearings and is expected to testify against them at trial in August.
Both are charged with first-degree murder. Prosecutors had earlier said they would dismiss the first-degree murder charge against Edwards in exchange for his continued testimony.
Evidence gathered since the killing ‘tends to further implicate Chancey Luna and Michael Jones and further casts doubt on the role of Edwards in the murder of Christopher Lane,’ according to the motion.
James Francis Edward Jr’s charge has been downgraded to accessory after the fact and he will give evidence against his two alleged accomplices
The motion stated that ‘it is in the best interests of justice that this matter be dismissed and that the State be allowed to proceed against Edwards in the juvenile division of the Stephens County District Court.’
Lane was shot while jogging along a tree-lined road in Duncan, Oklahoma while visiting his girlfriend’s parents in August.
Investigators said he was randomly targeted by ‘bored’ teenagers. He had been preparing to enter his senior baseball season at East Central University in Ada.
Edwards’ mother, Brenda Edwards, said following the closed-door court hearing on Tuesday that her heart goes out to all the families involved.
‘I never got a chance to acknowledge the Christopher Lane family and I just wanted to make that acknowledgement,’ said Brenda Edwards, who had been in prison for drug charges and was released in April, according to the Oklahoma Department of Corrections website.
However, the mother of Chancey Luna, another of the accused, is outraged at the deal prosecutors struck with the youngest of the trio.
‘I’m really upset about it,’ said Luna’s mother, Jennifer, who said her son says he is innocent.
‘It’s awful.
‘I’m sick to my stomach.’
Ms Luna said Edwards Jr lived at her home before the shooting, but now he has turned his back on her and Chancey.
‘James was calling me from jail and said, ‘I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I still love you Mum’, because I was like a mum to him,’ Ms Luna said.
Read the full story: www.dailymail.co.uk
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